Vice President for Constituent Engagement

Tommye Lou Davis

The division of Constituent Engagement is responsible for a number of Baylor's outreach efforts. Baylor University operates a strategic, comprehensive and effective university-based alumni relations program to fully engage and serve Baylor alumni worldwide. Vice President Tommye Lou Davis is charged with responsibility for effective operation of these efforts, and provides oversight to many of the university's most important outreach efforts. Specifically, the division includes:

Mrs. Tommye Lou Davis earned her bachelor's degree from Baylor in 1966 and a master's degree in educational psychology in 1968. She has taught Latin to Baylor students since joining the faculty in 1966, and has been honored with several outstanding teaching awards. She was appointed assistant professor with tenure in 1972 and was designated Master Teacher and associate professor in 1993. She served as acting chair of the Classics department in 2002.

Davis has served as a member of the Faculty Senate and on the Faculty Athletics Council for 12 years and as chair for three years. She is a longtime member of the Baylor Round Table and Baylor Bear Foundation.

Actively involved in student life, Davis has served for 22 years as faculty adviser for Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and was selected the Outstanding Adviser on Campus in 1996 and again in 2010. She also served many years as the adviser for Alpha Chi Honor Society.

From 2000-2003, Davis served on the Bush Presidential Library Committee, chairing the Museum Planning Committee. In 2003, she was appointed Chief of Staff to the President and assumed overall responsibility as chair of Baylor's presidential library efforts. In 2005, Davis made the presentation to the White House on behalf of Baylor. In 2007, she was awarded the Difference Maker Award for Economic Development by the Waco Tribune-Herald due to her Bush Library Project efforts. Before returning to the classics department and the Honors College as associate dean in 2007, Davis served as Chief of Staff to the Chancellor.

In 2010, President Starr appointed Davis as Vice President for Constituent Engagement. Since then, she has led a comprehensive University-based alumni relations program that engages and serves Baylor alumni worldwide through the Baylor Alumni Network and other outreach programs for alumni, current students, parents and friends of the University.

In 2014, President Starr appointed Davis Chief of Staff to the President
in addition to her responsibilities as Vice President for Constituent Engagement. Davis manages the day to-day operations of the Office of the President and oversees other areas that report to the office, such as governmental relations, Baylor Institutional Events and the Texas Hunger Initiative.

Davis has been actively involved in community affairs. She presently serves on the Waco Mammoth Foundation Board and the Community Visioning Coordinating Committee. She also serves on the boards of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum and CORD Communications. A former president of the Junior League of Waco, she served as the sustaining member on the board of directors in 2008. Past involvement has included the Waco Music Theatre board, Waco Symphony Council, the Lyric Opera, Keep Waco Beautiful Commission, Waco Art Center Associates, Waco Cotton Palace Pageant Board and Historic Waco Foundation, where she served as a past General Chairman for Christmas on the Brazos.

Davis and her husband, Don, a residential architect who also serves as executive director of the Historic Waco Foundation, are active members of First Baptist Church of Waco. They have four children: Christi Whittenburg Lee and husband Jeff, John David Whittenburg and wife Amanda, Warren Davis and Martha Davis; and five grandchildren: Laura Cate, Cameron and Wythe Roberts, and Violet and Beatrice Whittenburg.